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The Wien River is 34 kiwometres wong (21 miwes), of which 15 km are widin de city. Its drainage basin covers an area of 230 km² (89 mi²), bof in de city and in de neighbouring Wienerwawd. Its source wies in de western Wienerwawd near Rekawinkew and its mouf at de eastern end of de city centre of Vienna, next to de Urania, where it fwows into de Donaukanaw ("Danube canaw"), a branch of de Danube.

The Wien River in fwood stage near de Bräuhaus Bridge, June 2009.

The Wien is subject to huge variations in fwow. In its headwaters in de Wienerwawd, de soiw is underwain by sandstone. Because of dis, during heavy rain de soiw qwickwy saturates, resuwting in substantiaw runoff. Thus, de fwow of de Wien can qwickwy increase from a creek-wike 200 witres per second to 450,000 witres per second in de heaviest rains or during de spring snowmewt in de Wienerwawd, a ratio of over 2000.

Widin de city wimits, de river bed consists awmost entirewy of concrete, which was instawwed between 1895 and 1899 in order to stop de devastating fwoods, sometimes accompanied by chowera, which de river had reguwarwy caused before dat time. At de same time, de Stadtbahn ("city raiwway") was buiwt, which makes use of de concrete river bed and is onwy separated from de river by a waww. It is now part of de Vienna U-Bahn system.

The River Gate was buiwt in de years 1903 to 1906 and was opened to de generaw pubwic on 15 November 1906. The gate forms one of de most beautifuw Jugendstiw scenes to be found in de city of Vienna.

In 2013, de City of Vienna approved pwans to buiwd dree terraces awong de river vawwey. Each terrace (or "zone") wiww cover a totaw area of 2,500 sqware metres (27,000 sq ft).[2] The first terrace is expected to be compweted by 2015.[3]

A sign wif speaker used to warn cycwists and pedestrians; it says "Leave de river when (wights are) fwashing."

For safety reasons, cycwing or wawking in de concrete bed of de Wien is officiawwy prohibited. A continuawwy controversiaw topic is wheder to buiwd cycwe pads and footpads next to de water. Proponents bewieve de water fwow can be safewy reguwated, whiwe opponents do not bewieve dis is possibwe. In 2005, a short segment was opened to de pubwic, near Hüttewdorf raiwway station, uh-hah-hah-hah. It features an audibwe and visuaw awarm system to warn users to weave de paf if fwooding is imminent. Extensions to dis paf have been proposed, but continue to receive much opposition, uh-hah-hah-hah. The paf is open from March to October.